Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

Share yours, earn XP

72 stories

Likes earn the author +10 XP for the first 3 likes each day

MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Sep 2026

Four Rounds in One Day, Not Selected

The JD said the role is in Windows + Devices, with two teams, WSSI and AI Trust. The interviewer said the role mainly works on privacy and compatibility. There were 5 interviews in total: The first one was a CV + technical questions round, but I think they only asked about my resume and BQ. Then four rounds, all scheduled on the same day. Round 1: BQ + Coding Why Microsoft and why this role The t…

RejectedOnsite0
MicrosoftSoftware EngineerSenior+
Sep 2026

A Screen and Four Hiring-Event Rounds

The report describes a senior software engineering interview for Microsoft’s Intelligent Conversation and Communications Cloud organization. A technical screen in late August preceded a four-round hiring event in mid-September. The screen combined a three-number sum problem with a question about resolving disagreement. The first event round examined a thread-safe executor that preserves task orde…

Onsite0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Sep 2026

SDE-2 Loop with an AI-Assisted Design Round and a Linux cp Deep Dive

Round 1 The first problem was a variant of Longest Repeating Character Replacement. We discussed both the brute-force and the optimal solution in the interview, and I implemented it. The second problem was a Medium-difficulty tree traversal question. We also discussed some basic DSA concepts. Round 2 Design a notification system for Windows that lets different applications generate and display no…

Onsite0
MicrosoftSoftware EngineerSenior+
Aug 2026

Language Expectations and Stateful Naming

The author describes a Microsoft senior-engineering phone screen followed by three virtual-onsite rounds. The screen required a production-quality integer parser supporting arbitrary bases. The applicant advanced despite overlooking negative numbers. Subsequent sessions covered reconstructing digits from word representations, converting hexadecimal input to an IPv4 address, discussing a dictionar…

RejectedOnsite0
MicrosoftApplied ScientistSenior+
Aug 2026

Virtual Onsite, Then the Req Was Cancelled

This was a team under Microsoft MAI working on a web data platform, not the superintelligence team. The role was Principal Applied Scientist. The phone screen was mostly ML fundamentals and my background. They focused on data-related questions, and there were a few design questions too. Virtual onsite: What HR listed for each round did not quite match the actual interviews. Basically every round…

No responseOnsite0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

Two Renamed LeetCode Problems in a 75-Minute OA

Both questions were renamed versions of existing LeetCode problems. Neither was particularly difficult overall; if you're quick with implementation and edge cases, you can finish within 30 minutes: Q1: Count Binary Substrings LeetCode problem: LC 696, Count Binary Substrings (Easy). Topics: Two pointers / counting adjacent runs, or run-length encoding. Approach: Count the lengths of consecutive r…

Online Assessment0
MicrosoftSoftware EngineerSenior+
Reported Aug 2026

One-Day Israel Loop with Bike-Sharing Design and Project Deep-Dive

This is my account of getting through the senior fullstack loop at Microsoft's Israel office, for a team working on AI and cyber security. I had ten years behind me, split between hands-on fullstack work and leading a team. The opening was a Senior Software Engineer (Fullstack) position in Herzliya, on a team that straddles AI and security. Because the level was senior or lead, I figured that cod…

Onsite0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

Product Pages, Trackable Links, and Anonymous Users

Design a platform that can provide companies with the ability to create and showcase their product details through dedicated pages while also offering a shareable link feature for dissemination across various social media platforms like Facebook and more. Key Objectives: Companies can create/update product detailed page with images and description. The system can have a robust shareable link mech…

Onsite0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

Four Back-to-Back Rounds, and I Was Late to the First One

Before the interview they gave me two time windows to choose from, morning or afternoon. After I picked one, it was four rounds back to back, about an hour each. Part 1: The process and the questions Round 1 | BQ + quick-fire technical concepts + algorithm The interviewer was a guy based in Pittsburgh. BQ: Have you ever been blocked for a long time? How did you solve the problem and keep moving f…

Onsite0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

A 90-Minute OA and Only Time for Brute Force

The latest OA: 90 minutes, two questions, with AI hints for the second question. I only managed to write a brute-force solution for the second one. It probably needed DP, but I ran out of time. 2571 You are given an integer array requiredSum of length n. Build an array result of length n that satisfies all of these conditions: result is non-decreasing: result[i] ≤ result[i + 1] for every valid i.…

Online Assessment0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Aug 2026

HackerRank OA with Two Coding Problems, Then VO

Microsoft SWE II OA, HackerRank, two coding problems. I passed and moved on to the VO. [Questions] Q1: Given a string, look at the substrings whose length is in [minLength, maxLength] and whose number of distinct characters is <= maxUnique, and return the highest frequency among them. Similar to LC 1297. n goes up to 1e5, maxLength <= 26. Example: abcde, length 2 to 4, maxUnique unlimited, the an…

Online Assessment0
MicrosoftSoftware EngineerSenior+
Aug 2026

25 Minutes to Hand-Code a Concurrent Task Executor

I applied pretty randomly online, and HR reached out to schedule an interview for yesterday afternoon. I went in with a "just watching the show" mindset, and honestly the whole experience was terrible — basically a setup for failure. If I'd actually been seriously job hunting, this would have driven me insane. First, it was a one-hour technical phone screen, and half an hour of that went into goi…

Technical Screen0
MicrosoftSite Reliability EngineerSenior+
Reported Jul 2026

Coding, Technical and Culture Rounds After a Long Search, One Offer

I got laid off from Amazon as a new grad SDE 1 a few years back, and the two jobs I took afterward gave me neither the growth nor the total comp I wanted. My current job is very relaxed and a solid long-term place for my peace of mind. So I only went after FANG+ roles that looked interesting to me and would roughly double my TC. I've been interviewing for 30 months now, although I was only out of…

OfferOnsite0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Microsoft Software Engineer long interview timeline experience

The most surprising part of my Microsoft process was its length. It took at least two months from beginning to end: about one month of interviews, then another month waiting for the decision. There were multiple rounds assessing different skills. Interviewers gave hints, and I had to keep track of them and adjust my approach while time was running. I did not receive an offer. The month of uncerta…

0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Software Engineer interview at Microsoft: respectful recruiter screen

The recruiter screen was prompt and professional. The recruiter explained the role, asked about my background, and clarified expectations, so the conversation did what an early fit check should do. I did not advance or receive an offer. The process felt clear and respectful, but the experience reminded me that an early screen can still be decisive even when the conversation goes well. Location: U…

0
MicrosoftData Scientist
Reported Jul 2026

Microsoft Data Scientist interview: timed HackerRank assessment

Most of my process was a timed online technical assessment. It had several HackerRank-style questions and a predefined window of around an hour to finish everything. There was little conversational interviewing beyond that. It felt like a fast evaluation of technical problem solving, with very little room to recover from a missed question. I did not receive an offer. The straightforward but tough…

Online Assessment0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Microsoft Software Engineer interview: three 90-minute loop interviews

An HR call set up a packed loop day with three interviews, each 90 minutes long. The first two were live coding rounds with LeetCode-medium problems and a strong emphasis on clean code. The third was a behavioral interview with the department manager. The 90-minute blocks made the day longer than a typical loop and required sustained focus across coding clarity and later communication. I did not…

HR Screen0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Microsoft Software Engineer interview: story-based medium-hard rounds

After clearing the OA, I had three technical rounds. The questions were story-based and ranged from medium to hard. Not every interviewer required me to fully execute code; some were more interested in whether I could explain an approach clearly. The interviews were demanding because I had to stay precise about both the algorithm and my reasoning while the conversation moved quickly. I was trying…

Online Assessment0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Software Engineer interview at Microsoft

The technical screen was tightly focused on algorithms. I had two coding questions: one involved traversing an array to count ball collisions based on speed, and the other asked how to maximize a weighted sum by sorting an array strategically. They tested greedy thinking and careful logic. The problems were described as easy to medium, and I could follow how the scoring and sorting decisions conn…

0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Microsoft Software Engineer interview: dynamic programming and scheduling algorithms

This was an on-campus process with two rounds on the same schedule. First I got a simple dynamic-programming question about counting ways to reach a target count. The second round shifted to scheduling algorithms: FCFS, SJF, and round-robin. They were not presented as trick questions. I felt reasonably comfortable with both the DP logic and the scheduler implementations. I did not get an offer. M…

Technical Screen0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

Share your experience to earn XP